Inevitabilty
by Ikobe
Summary: A request fic from Seraphox... Ziren talks to Agent Smith. *grin*


A weird request, but meh. Oh, in this story, to make it make a little more sense, Ziren isn't part of the Neb or any of the more important or featured ships. The ship she is on is called the Siriel, and it's stationary in the sewers as their Operator has been called away (so I've been told).  
  
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Ziren coughed up another mouthful of blood as the Agent's fist hit her full in the stomach. "Miss Diget, be thankful you're still alive, but if you don't co-operate, the luxury of living won't be yours for the taking." She blinked and wiped the blood from her lips on her coat, the stain disappearing. "You're the one who's the virus, aren't you? The one who spreads." Agent Smith took off his glasses and sat down in the chair in front of her, resting his chin on his fingertips contemplatively. "I suppose you could say that, yes." Ziren stared coldly up at him. «He looks so... human...» She sat hunched up in her coat, looking more like a girl than a young woman. "Why?"   
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"You're supposedly AI... why don't you help people unplug, why do you have to be like this?" The Agent was unsure of whether to put his shades back on or not, and after a few moments finally thought of something to say. "My dear Miss Diget, I am no more than a program. A super-advanced program, but a program nonetheless. Any program that does not do its assigned duty set for it by the machined risks deletion. I, in some twisted manner am unplugged from my duty since that intolerable Anderson first tried to destroy me, yet I am still threatened with deletion. That is why I multiply." Ziren wiped her lips again as a little blood fell from them. "That's not fair," she said coldly, sniffing slightly. "Life isn't fair," Smith replied, putting his shades back on after a short decisive time. "Yeah, and the Matrix isn't life," she retorted, keeping her solemn composure. The Agent could only sit and stare at her. "We will continue this in the morning. For now, I suggest you get some sleep. You're not going anywhere until you tell me who else has the access codes to Zion. It's a pity I'm forced to keep you here, this job would be so much easier in the office..." Ziren smiled as she stood up and walked over to the slightly-mouldy sofa. "Why don't you just kill me now? You don't even know if I know what you think I know." The Agent moved the chair to the door and sat down again, one leg cross over the other, arms folded. "Try to escape and I *will* kill you." She stretched out along the full length of the sofa and rolled so she was facing the back of it. "G'night," the young woman said with an almost content yawn. She heard, and expected, no reply from Smith, as he switched the dim light off.  
  
Ziren woke up a little hazily the next day, unsure of the time, and a little unaware of how much danger she was in, but when she opened her eyes and saw Agent Smith asleep in the chair, it came back to her, making her heart sink, soon after feeling the burning sickness of him hitting her in the stomach the night before. She got up slowly and sat forward on the sofa, face in her hands as her eyes adjusted to the daylight. A little distance away, the Agent's eyes opened as if he'd just had them closed for a few seconds. "Do you sleep?" she asked, her voice a little husky. "Humans sleep, I simulate standby." She looked across and wiped the sleep residue from her eyes, noticing her shades across the room on the floor. She wouldn't bother to pick them up just yet. "I'm not going to tell you anything I know - that is, if I know anything, so you might as well just let me go." He looked unimpressed. "Because the office is inaccessible, then you're staying here until you tell me." Ziren knew vaguely of what was at 'the office' - drugs and machinery that tapped into the mind. "That's an ulterior method, especially for an Agent," she muttered, hoping that it would cause some kind of reaction, but she got nothing. "You don't talk much, do you," the young woman commented after ten minutes of silence. "When I don't see fit to, I don't talk," Smith replied in that same, hypnotic tone. "What about when you want to talk even though you think it's wrong?" She looked into his eyes as best she could. They were calm, and hypnotic as his voice, reminding her of some kind of silent predator, hiding out until just the right moment, although she wasn't quite sure any more if the predators she'd learned about at school in the Matrix were truly real or not. "You're very insistent, aren't you, Miss Diget."   
  
"Depends."  
  
"You would make a convincing Agent." She raised an eyebrow. "What, me? An *Agent*?" She stood up and walked over to him, arms folded. "Tough chance of that. I couldn't be as boring and monotonous as you," Ziren replied, smiling slyly. "That's because I'm not a human-"  
  
"Precisely. I couldnt' live without human emotion. Not even the most advanced AI could copy the intensity of human passion, human angst, human sadness. It's something completely pure and organic."  
  
The Agent looked up at her, simulated pain in his eyes. She was right, and it felt terrible, but what was worse is that he knew it wasn't real emotional pain, unlike her there was no mind on the other end of a wire that could feel real pain. He could take the bloodshed because there was nothing to make him hurt. "Would you be a human if you could?" she asked softly, realising that Smith was trying to cope with the stress and reality in the way only a machine could - in cold, distant silence. "Before, maybe I would have objected completely. But now, I am practically a virus, working the same way that humanity does upon the land." She reached out for the Agent, her hand hovering over his shoulder. "So... is that a yes? I guess that trying to comprehend the thoguhts and processes of human soulfulness is beyond you, but think for a second that you had the ability to... would you keep the ability and be a human, or would you stay a program, a virus, whatever you are?" He stayed quiet and focused on the wall facing them, a small window letting in a band of hazy, dirty light. "Perhaps," he muttered, leaning forward, forearms on his knees. Ziren smiled weakly and put her hand firmly dow on his shoulder, though a little scared that contact with him might cause her to become infected with some lethal computer disease, but nothing happened. "If you could think like a real human being... if you were a real human being... I'm sure we'd be friends... or something." He looked up at her again, his hypnotic gaze softening. "You have a strong sense of inevitablity, Miss Diget. Fortunately, so do I."  
  
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It sucks, I know, but as long as Seraphox likes it I don't mind! 


End file.
